Cruise giant challenges injury claim with surveillance footage
A former senior human resources executive at P&O Cruises is pursuing nearly £10 million in damages after claiming a fall on the company's flagship vessel left her unable to work again.
Kerry Middleton, 52, previously a human resources director at P&O, was injured in 2019 while attending a work meeting on the MV Britannia, then docked in Cádiz, Spain.
She alleges she slipped on a wet floor in a lavatory on board, fell heavily, and fractured her neck.
The former HR director was later diagnosed with functional neurological disorder (FND), a condition that can cause limb weakness or paralysis, tremors, speech difficulties, seizures, and significant psychological symptoms.
According to the Mayo Clinic, the disorder's symptoms can vary in severity.
"The condition may be triggered by a neurological disorder or by a reaction to stress or psychological or physical trauma, but that's not always the case," the Mayo Clinic said on its website.
Middleton maintains that the disorder left her primarily reliant on a wheelchair and that her working life has effectively ended. She is now seeking about £9.7 million in compensation.
Extent of disability in dispute
The cruise line's parent company, Carnival, has accepted responsibility for the initial accident but is challenging the scale of the claim, The Times reported.
James Todd KC, acting for Carnival, argued that the medical and factual evidence does not support a finding that Middleton is permanently incapable of work.
Todd also suggested that a "triggering episode" for Middleton's long‑term condition may have been a relatively poor performance review not long before the accident, rather than the slip itself.
A key development in the case is Carnival's use of surveillance footage. The High Court heard that Middleton was secretly filmed through the window of her home on New Year's Eve 2024 as she prepared food for her family.
Todd told the court that the footage shows Middleton "moving freely" around her kitchen, walking around a kitchen island, engaging with her family, and appearing cheerful.
"She is cheerful and happy with her family," Todd said. "It shows a woman apparently with completely normal mobility and looking pretty chirpy on top of it."
On returning to work
But Middleton's legal team, led by Eliot Woolf KC, maintains that she remains severely affected by functional neurological disorder and is, in practice, mainly a wheelchair user when moving around.
"The pain experts are agreed that her complaints of pain are subsumed within the diagnoses of FND. The neurologists are pessimistic over long-term prognosis," Woolf said as quoted by The Sun.
"They anticipate some improvement once she has undergone treatment in a multidisciplinary unit, but not sufficient for her to return to any form of employment."
Judge Tim Moloney ruled that the video can be used at trial. The full hearing is expected to take place at a later date.
